Neal's Workshop

Justin Owings here. I hail from the dirty south (I've lived in KY, NC, AL and GA, in that order). I currently reside in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. That means I live itp and not in "Jesusland" crazy commuter metro Atlanta that exists otp.

Recently (Early Summer 2007), I quit my corporate job at Georgia Gulf as a senior account/senior financial analyst/senior treasury analyst (all at different times and all at the same time - long story) to start full-time work on the internet. Yes, seriously. I'm currently working with Aaron Krowne of Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter fame (and the lesser known but equally fantastic Planet Math dot org). We're working on rolling out further sites that "stick it to the man". In this case, the "man" is the mainstream financial media and "gummint".

I created autoDogmatic.com in early 2006 out of a need to push myself to be creative as well as dump all my existential angst. [This next part deprecated in summer 2007: All of the artwork you see on this site constitutes 99% of the artwork I've done in the past five years. Sigh. Add to that the aforementioned boring-frustrating-maddening job of a C.P.A. and financial analyst and you'll soon understand where I'm coming from.]

Down to the nitty gritty. I'm a preacher's kid atheist anarcho-capitalist. Don't get too confused. As for my atheism, I once walked the talk and (literally) sang the songs, but I finally removed the plank from my eye: things became clearer for me when I allowed myself to answer the tough questions. This isn't to say that every Christian who questions the dogmatism they grew up with will end up like me. I'm happy about who I have become - or perhaps I'm happy because I understand and have accepted who I am.

A tragedy of life is that we can live firmly believing things we never challenge/test/hold to the fire. I assert that a belief held unchallenged is worthless. Be forewarned, the path to righteousness is beset on all sides by challenges. The path is autoDogmatic and uncompromising. Do you know what you believe? Can you accept the consequences of such beliefs?

As for being an anarcho-capitalist, think of me as a libertarian - that's as good a place to start as any. Then take libertarianism seriously and without compromise. I believe human action is predictable, self-serving (and that this is by and large a positive thing) and unable to be regulated in any beneficial (think cost-benefit) manner. Not only that, I believe men should be free from coercion. Thus my belief in anarchy is an assertion that is both utilitarian and morally grounded. Don't be fooled by your ignorance: anarchy isn't chaos. If you want to learn more, scour these pages and you might start picking up a few overarching themes.

Things I enjoy include art (As evidenced by this site), music (I've been playing the guitar for about 10 years now - I also sing, but not quite as well as I play guitar), reading (a healthy mix of fiction and non-fiction), economics, good discussion and surfing the internet. I drive a big V8 truck that guzzles gas and torques like a bat out of hell. I enjoy every second of it. I have a siamese-mix named Zeke. I once tried to train him to use the toilet. He was actually getting the hang of it until the splashback on No. 2 ruined it all. Yeah, I know, too much information.

I've traveled to Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Europe, India and Israel. I'm still trying to figure out what to make of my life. I hope you enjoy my musings.